The concerns surrounding the Perth Bears have started to grow by the day and there may need to be a genuine plan to help the expansion club before it’s too late.
It has been almost a month since the NRL’s newest team have been able to sign players, but at this stage it has been all misses and no hits.
Jayden Campbell knocked back a $6 million offer to stay with the Titans, while the likes of Harry Grant and Josh Addo-Carr also opted to remain at their current clubs.
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The only player the Bears have reportedly landed thus far is Leeds Rhinos centre Harry Newman, who played one game for England in the recent Ashes series.
The lack of success on the recruitment drive in November has led to the RLPA pushing for concessions to be made to help Perth land marquee talent.
Mal Meninga with WA Premier Roger Cook Getty
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, potential incentives would include assistance with childcare costs and extra flights for friends and family to Western Australia.
The Herald also indicated that at least one Bears official was considering approaching those at NRL headquarters to request allowances with signing big-name players.
Despite the growing concerns, Peter V’landys is adamant that the Bears will not need to be given special treatment – just as the Dolphins weren’t in 2023.
“There’s no need for any incentives, and at this stage, we’re more than confident they’ll assemble a competitive roster, just as the Dolphins were able to before they entered the competition,” the ARLC chairman said on Monday.
“The one thing that’s great about our competition, especially last season, is that everyone is treated equally. I’m not worried about Perth. They will be more than fine.”
The differences between the Bears and Dolphins are like apples and oranges, however.
One team was piggybacking off a long-standing established club in the Redcliffe area and a very strong junior nursery in southeast Queensland.
Players considering signing there were also weighing up the chance to play in the middle of rugby league heartland at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on an almost bi-weekly basis.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow of the Dolphins celebrates with team mates after scoring a try during the round 27 NRL match between Dolphins and Canberra Raiders at Kayo Stadium, on September 07, 2025, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)Â Getty
On the other hand, the Bears are looking to get off the ground in a city that is dominated by two AFL teams – West Coast and Fremantle – with a miniscule junior base, while also asking players from the other side of the country to relocate five hours away by plane.
It’s also worth noting that just a year after Perth enter the competition in 2027, another team will join the competition in Papua New Guinea.
That new team will have plenty of concessions made in a bid to get marquee talent to move to Port Moresby – most notably the ability for players to earn tax-free money.
How does that seem fair? The short answer is, it doesn’t.
The NRL’s biggest rival in the AFL have done everything in their power to ensure that expansion teams are provided the opportunity to be competitive from the outset.
When both the GWS Giants and Gold Coast Suns joined the competition, they were given extra first round draft picks to help bolster their lists.
When the Tassie Devils join the league, they will receive concessions including flexible list sizes of up to 48 players, a signing bonus pool of $5 million outside the salary cap (to be spent over a two-year period) and five top-10 picks in their first draft.
Tassie Devils AFL Photos via Getty Images
Even the cost-of-living allowances that the Sydney Swans received until a decade ago, worth almost $1 million-a-year, helped the club sign interstate players.
In the Super Rugby competition, the Melbourne Rebels were afforded plenty of special concessions to help them get off the ground for their debut 2011 season.
The club was given dispensation to sign up to 10 overseas recruits compared to the other Aussie-based teams, who were only allowed two imports each.
Dating even further back, the Western Force were allowed to sign foreign players who were exempt from the salary cap in their inaugural 2006 season.
Compare all of that with the poor old Bears, who are being forced to fend for themselves in an era when the rugby league player market is absolute chaos and it’s a poor look.
RLPA boss Clint Newton is starting to push the issue and can see the writing on the wall.
“If we’re serious about Perth and the long-term success of the NRL, this has to be addressed now instead of being ignored by the status quo,” he told the Herald.
“We’ve raised these issues with Andrew [Abdo] and the NRL repeatedly.
“We’ve been crystal clear that Perth would face challenges in recruiting players, and we’ve been trying to get the NRL to problem solve that since the bid was confirmed.
“What concerns me is the NRL seems ready and willing to quickly redirect funds from the PNG bid to pay off existing clubs, but I’m yet to see how that benefits the game.
“Sadly, when it comes to supporting an expansion club to actually sign players, there is not as much urgency – if any. We’re ready to work through sensible CBA amendments to support Mal [Meninga] and Perth.”
This is all a very fine line for the NRL to walk – they don’t want to ruin the sanctity and equality of the competition – but at the same time, V’landys is desperate for Perth to succeed and that’s appearing less likely to happen if no leeway is afforded to them.